Bannerman the Enforcer 12 by Kirk Hamilton

Author:Kirk Hamilton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: winchester rifle, colt 45, piccadilly publishing, best western fiction, wild west ebook, kirk hamilton, yancey bannerman western series
Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing

Six – The Wild Bunch

There was a renegade town near the Red River Crossing called Nacomie. Slowly, bit by bit, law and order was encroaching on it; where once it had been the exclusive stamping ground of outlaws there were now decent folk settling there, going into business, starting to homestead the land surrounding the town. Because of its position, at the gateway to the Red River country, Nacomie was prosperous and the business folk had made enough from their profits to elect and hire themselves a sheriff.

He kept the peace tolerably well, though he didn’t go hunting trouble unnecessarily. If some known outlaws rode in, he allowed them to stay a spell, until they had had sufficient time to complete their business, and then, if they didn’t show any sign of moving on, he went and braced them. The fact that he was still walking the streets of Nacomie testified to his prowess with a gun. His name was McBride and he was an ex-Ranger.

When the Garrett bunch rode into town on their way out to the Red River country, McBride took one look and knew he wouldn’t be able to ask them to move on. There were too many of them for one thing; for another, they were killers. For a third, he had just received Wanted dodgers on them for the Matador bank robbery and now Garrett had extra charges against him for escaping from custody in Seymour and suspicion of murdering a young doctor in some distant hills out on the Brazos.

They were a dangerous bunch to have around town and McBride wasn’t about to go up against them alone. But he could use the reward and he knew there was a troop of Rangers not too far away. They had been through the town only the day before, on roving patrol. The captain had been an old pard of his and McBride knew they were headed south and west.

So, he slipped out of town while Garrett and his men strode into the saloon, and rode at breakneck speed until he came to the Rangers’ camp by a river bend. He told the captain about the Garrett bunch and the Rangers saddled swiftly and commenced the ride back along the trail to Nacomie.

By the time they got there, the Garretts had taken over the saloon and there was one hell of a racket coming from behind the batwings: laughter; singing; piano music; cussing; the sounds of breaking glass; the thud of fists, and splintering wood. A man was hurled bodily through the batwings into the street where he landed flat in the dust and sprawled unconscious.

The Ranger captain deployed his men and, with McBride at his side, yelled on the Garretts to come on out. McBride swore: it wasn’t the way he would’ve handled it, not with all those townsmen inside, not to mention the whores. Innocent folk were bound to get hurt; well, at least it wouldn’t be on his conscience.

The Garretts’ answer, of course, was a shotgun blast, swiftly followed by a racket of small arms fire.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.